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strainer

Object type

Museum number

1975,1002.9

Description

A silver strainer, its bowl pierced with two circles and twelve radiating lines of small holes, each radiating line ending in a group of four holes. There is a separate ring of silver with a segmented pattern on the surface, which fits the rim of the bowl. The handle, which may be partly gilt, has been broken and repaired with three large rivets in antiquity. The handle has engraved decoration, decorative notches along the edges, and at the end a disc, 1-9 cm. in diameter, bearing an engraved Chi-Rho and alpha and omega within a circle of punched dots.

Materials

Dimensions

Inscriptions

Inscription Type

inscription

Inscription Position

handle end

Inscription Language

Greek

Inscription Content

A XP ω

Inscription Transliteration

alpha Chi-Rho omega

Curator's comments

Silver strainer

Round-bowled strainers of various sizes occur in many late-Roman hoards of domestic silver. They were used to strain the sediment from wine as it was poured into a drinking vessel. This example features Christian symbols on the disc at the end of the handle.